Break free from people pleasing, with Keisha Buchanan, Megan Barton-Hanson, and Jade Scott
Happy Place
Fearne Cotton
4.7 • 15.6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2026
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Have you ever changed yourself to fit in with other people? Or dulled your character so they don’t think you’re ‘too much’? Do you compare yourself a lot or sacrifice your own needs so not to cause a fuss?
Fearne has done all these things and more over the years in a bid to be more likeable. But it’s time to stop shapeshifting to make ourselves palatable to others!
Sugababes Keisha Buchanan, Love Island’s Megan Barton-Hanson, and The Traitor’s Jade Scott join Fearne to reflect on their own experiences of people pleasing and being disliked.
They share advice on being okay with people not ‘getting’ you, allowing yourself to be multifaceted, and speaking up for yourself. This is all about building the confidence to live life on your own terms, not the life others want you to live.
Fearne’s new book, Likeable, is out now.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome to Happy Place with me, Fern Cotton. Today, let's unpack what it really means to be likable, shall we? |
| 0:09.8 | I'm chatting to Keisha Buchanan, Megan Barton Hanson and Jade Scott. |
| 0:16.4 | I think people, they really couldn't get their head around that in some situations, I'm such an |
| 0:21.3 | introvert. I'm such a kind, sensitive, little Pisces soul. And then in another breath, I'm like, no, if I fancy that man, I'm going to go for what I want, I'm going to get him. So I think that was hard for people to wrap their head around that women are multifaceted. I don't know anyone who wakes with the morning. It's just like, I'm just, you know, I don't mind if I'm not like. |
| 0:39.9 | I was being called defensive a lot. And I was like, what am I supposed to do, not sit here and defend myself? So I'd walk into my situation just thinking that no one likes me. And I was like, God, like, what if people see me as just like really weak like vulnerable young women because that's not who I am. |
| 0:55.5 | Like on the front of the sun it's like muggy megan this, like Megan's seedy passes as stripper. |
| 1:00.1 | And I can't like go into people's brains and control the way they think. |
| 1:04.3 | Like they have a right to think what they think, have their thoughts and like that's okay. |
| 1:09.2 | And that's been the biggest thing. |
| 1:10.4 | I was actually like the most hated person it felt like in Britain. |
| 1:14.4 | Oh my God. |
| 1:15.0 | I honestly, I am bursting with excitement about this episode. |
| 1:18.6 | I just want to get to it. |
| 1:20.5 | So I don't want to waffle on too much. |
| 1:21.8 | But basically the idea for this chat came about last year at some point. |
| 1:26.7 | I was thinking up ideas with a group of brilliant minds |
| 1:29.7 | that I worked with about what we could do podcast-wise when my new book, Likeable, comes out. |
| 1:37.3 | And I've got to shout out the exact person who had this idea. Simon Jones, who I work |
| 1:41.1 | with, said, wouldn't it be interesting to chat to different people who have had very different experiences in the public eye about being disliked? Because that is obviously one of the big risks of being in the public eyes that you're publicly mocked, humiliated or just simply disliked. And I loved that idea. |
| 1:59.8 | So we've been working on this for ages, getting the right collection of people together. |
| 2:05.0 | And I think we've just hit the nail on the head with this incredible group of women |
| 2:10.8 | who I learned so much from today. |
... |
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